Today is Mother’s Day and I am headed over to my parents house this afternoon for a nice dinner with the family .My mother won’t let me cook for her on Mother’s Day. She feels that one day she won’t be able to do it.

I am blessed to have a really awesome mom. She’s one of the smartest people I know, a fabulous cook, a warm and wonderful person. While my divorce was really hard on her, she’s done so much for Frankie and I (and even Margarita) to help make us a family. It’s nothing major, just a lot of little things. Making Frankie Mac and cheese when we come over to visit, picking up books from the library he might like.

I tend to remember the wonderful little things my mom had done for me over the years.

We moved to Atlanta when I was in the first grade. I remember every other kid in my class had this glue that had a pirate on it. I had Elmer’s. I told her that a kid made fun of me because I had a cow on my glue. My mom drove around to 4 different stores to find the Pirate glue so her little boy wouldn’t be laughed at.

My 3rd grade class grew tulips and decorated pots to grow them in. It’s the Friday of Mother’s Day weekend and everyone is sitting with their pots and tulips riding home on the bus. Getting off the bus, in front of my house , I tripped and my pot was smashed. I sat on the step of our house crying. My mom told me she loved her tulip because it was unique. We planted the tulip bulb in front of the house.

For all my failures and shortcomings, I never seem to let her down. I am proud to be her son.

Frankie and over the weekend completed a journey which we started last November. It was to watch all the James Bond movies in the order they were released in. Starting with “Dr. No” and winding up with “Skyfall”. We watched all 23 Bond movies ( we don’t consider “Never Say Never Again” an official Bond movie) .

I’ve watched all of the Bond films over the course of my life. Yet I had never watched them in the order they were released in. During the week, I see Frankie on Thursday nights. So our conversations always would turn to what Bond movies we were watching.

I asked Frankie of we should do something special to mark the end of this journey when we watched “Skyfall”. Frankie said to me, we should put on coat and ties “just like James,dad”. He was also the one that suggested we put a tie on Margarita, because “she is our ‘M’ ” . It was quite a special night.

Sadly my 007 or M did not make it to the end of the night. Both passed out cold somewhere in the middle of “Skyfall” . I wound up watching the end by myself.

Six months later, I can tell you that I can’t watch a Bond movie without Frankie around. It’s just not as much fun. I think the best way to have a root beer is not in a frosted mug,but in a martini glass “shaken,not stirred”.

We started watching Bond movies just as something fun to do. I never knew it was going to lead us a journey that took us everywhere and we never had to leave our living room.

Thank you Frankie for letting me take you on what I hope is the first of many journeys